Process for the manufacture of ketones.



JEAN EFFRbNT, OF BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.

PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF K ETONES.

No Drawing.

Application filed February 21, 1912.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 31,1912.

Serial No. 679,085.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J EAN EFFRONT, a subject of the Czar of Russia, residing at Brussels, Belgium, have invented a new and useful Process for the Manufacture of Kotones; and I do herebv declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact (lCSCTlptlOn of the same.

At. present ketones are produced either by calcining salts of fatty volatile acids or by causing vapors of volatile organic acids to pass over lime at a high temperature. Such processes have not given satisfactory resuits. The calcining of acetates, etc, .is a very long operation and is always accompained by a considerable loss of acid. Also,

the distillation of acids on lime offers very great difficulties. The lime swells up and finally chokes the apparatus and soon becomes inoperativeas itis vitrified. More over, a certain proportion oi. acid is destroyed, and mixed ketones are formed, more particularly when the process is carried with a mixture of organic acids. It has been attempted to replace time by other metallic oxids such as those oft thorium, uranium, Wolfram, aluminium, etc. lVith these catalyzers it has been possible to obtain satisfactory results in. the laboratory but it has been impossible to apply them on a large scale, as it was necessary to regenerate the oxids at the end of the operation.

The present invention is based on the obsci-ration that coke or charcoal form first class eatalyzers :t'or convertingvolatile fatty acids into ketones. By passing a mixture of vapor of concentrated acids and water over coke heated to between 350 and 450, the various fatty acids are converted in a quan titative manner into ketoncs. \Vhen a-,n'iixture of acids is used, it is rmssible to avoid formation of mixed lmtoues.

The process is carried out in practice in the following manner: Small pieces oi coke properly Washed and deprived of dust, are placed in an iron tube 1042 min. in section and 510 meters long. her the said coke raised to a temperature o:t' about, E353()'"- 450, is passed a mixture of vapors of conpure acid passing through the apparatus, there may be used from 50 to 100 parts of Water, in the formv of vapor. At the outlet ot' the furnace is arranged a refrigerator :tor condensing the vapors of ketones. The length of the tube, in proportion to the section and to the yield of" the apparatus, are adjusted so that at the outlet of the furnace no vapors of acid, appear. The heating of the furnace is regulated, so that no combustible gas escapes, but only CO Moreover, the temperature can be regulated in accordance with the quantity of steam admitted-that is, the temperature is regulated on one side by the opening and closing of burners, that is to say by the admission cocks of the combustible gases in the stove. lit can moreover be thus regulated by the change which made in the admission of the steam with the acids. XV hen the temperatlu'e is found to be too high and the oven is hard to regulate by the burnerswhich may sometimes happen when Working with concentrated acids with a view to their transformation into acetoncs-steam is caused to enter the tube at the same time as the acids, and it is by the entry of these vapors in a more or less large quantity that the teuipcratiu'e of the oven is regulated. The kctones obtained are then rectified in the ordinary way.

The process is also applicable to a mixture of acids, so that a mixture of simple kotoncs is obtained, and no mixed ketones. Moreover, the same coke can be used almost iruleiiuitelywithout any treatment.

llaving fully described the nature of my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A process for the manufacture ot lK'QtOnGS, said ro -ess consisting in passing a mixture oi? the vapors of Water and an organic acid through coke maintained at a temperature of 350 to 450 degrees centigrade.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

JEAN EFFRONT.

Witnesses l3. Josurn. Lunumnr, Amman "Wimnimmcn. 

